A recent article on the Social Capital blog looks at a paper presented by Berry Bluestone of Northeastern University at Harvard where he took on Robert Putnam’s claim that home ownership leads to greater civic engagement.   Bluestonne cited an analysis he conducted that seems to bring the “Bowling Alone” hypothesis into question. Both Bluestone’s arguments and the commentary from the Tom at the Social Capital blog are worth reading:

One thing that Bluestone didn’t examine is how renters and buyers differ in their future intentions of rootedness and geographic mobility: only 25% of homeowners, when we conducted research for Bowling Alone, expected to move in the next five years versus two-thirds of renters. If we had policies in America that left us with far more renters, it seems wishful thinking to imagine that most of them would remain in community for as long as the owners.

You can read more here.